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Monday, 7 May 2012

Hat death

NPR looks at whether President Kennedy is guilty of killing the hat and concludes that the culprit is more prosaic: Motor Cars.

This has always been my theory. Modern cars from the '50s onward have tended toward lower tops until wearing a hat while driving becomes quite impractical. I rediscovered this a couple of months ago when I was driving in a crowded car. Since it was raining, I wore my customary Australian rancher hat, but with the cab filled I had no way to remove it–and no way to turn my head because of the brim. The neck ache lasted two days.

Not that this is a simple explanation. I also believe that the second factor was the complete collapse of taste in the Western world as civilisation began to slide toward the abyss.

The hat has actually made a comeback, just in a different form: the ball cap. It avoids all the problems mentioned with driving, etc., but still accomplishes the two primary functions of a hat: keeping the head warm and dry, and shading the eyes.